The present invention relates to a surgical drape which includes a pouch for fluid containment for channelling and collecting fluids at a surgical site during an operation.
During many surgical procedures, it is frequently desirable to create a sterile field around a surgical site to reduce the possibility of infection of a patient. Typically, a sterile field is created by draping a sterile material over a patient in such a manner as to leave an opening only at the actual site of an incision. Such surgical drapes have been used for many years. Originally the focus of draping was to protect the patient from infection. Recently, that focus has expanded to include protection of the staff from infection. Examples of types of infection that a surgical staff member may be exposed to from fluids include the hepatitis B virus and the AIDS virus. Thus, another function of surgical drapes used today is to provide a barrier to the penetration of liquids or bacteria which may result in contamination of the patient or the staff performing the surgical procedure.
In some surgical procedures very large volumes of fluid may be present either from irrigation sources or from the patient's body fluids. It is desirable in most instances to control and contain such fluids. Some drapes have been used in the past which contain a pouch to collect fluids present during surgery.
One of the disadvantages of the currently available drapes with pouches is that they are relatively difficult to manipulate into the form of an open pouch. Once formed, the pouch can also be difficult to maintain in a fixed position away from a drape to which it is attached. It is important to maintain the pouch away from the drape to allow fluids to flow into the pouch (as opposed to flowing around or over the pouch and onto the drape). Another disadvantage of pouches previously used is that they generally lacked a satisfactory mechanism for maintaining the pouch in a patient-specific shape or configuration. Therefore, a need existed to provide a drape which includes a pouch that can be both arranged in a variety of patient-specific shapes and maintained in a such a specific shape away from the drape throughout a surgical procedure without undue or repeated manipulation by members of the surgical staff.
Another requirement of a drape containing a pouch is that prior to use of the drape, it is necessary to be able to fold the drape in a compact manner for storage and for ease of placement over a patient using sterile techniques prior to beginning a surgical procedure. Therefore, it is necessary for any pouch which may be attached to a surgical drape to be able to be folded to lie flat against a drape prior to use. Conversely, while the drape and pouch are in use, it is highly desirable for the pouch to form a concave surface which extends away from the drape and can be easily maintained in a position away from the drape throughout a surgical procedure.